High Drama

Thespian hearts should beat a little faster and thespian smiles grow a little broader with the knowledge that a University theatre has finally clmbed near the top of the Arts and Sciences building priority list. Now that the College and the GSAS are supplied with a new library, a student activities center, graduate dormitories, an applied science building, and a General Education lecture hall, those interested in drama at Harvard can start hoping again.

But there are still a couple of important obstacles. For one thing, the University would not spend unrestricted funds for a theatre while there are still important needs to be met in various graduate departments. This means that the money for a theatre is unlikely to come in through the University's regular fund raising procedures; it will have to be solicited from people interested in the theatre by other people interested in the theatre.

Secondly, the drive for a theatre should not get tangled with the campaign for a large auditorium to take care of the occasional personal appearance that strains the capacity of New Lecture Hall and Sanders Theatre. Such a building would be expensive to construct and maintain, and hard to integrate with the intimate sort of theatre that local dramatic groups need. An auditorium is not high on the University's priory list.

If the theatre people--on the undergraduate, faculty, and alumni levels--can back up their architectural plans with a financial program, Harvard drama may yet emerge from the Victorian gloom of Sanders and the chilling courtyard of Fogg into a newer, more comfortable arena.